Laboratory Aspects of Tuberculosis in the Ambulatory Patient

Abstract

Active participation of public health agencies in the treatment of unhospitalized patients with tuberculosis is now essential. The need arises from three directions. Patients awaiting admittance to hospitals require treatment to check the progress of their disease and its spread to others. An increasing number of cases are being discharged from institutions with a recommendation that chemotherapy be continued for long periods. Finally, there are always present in the community a large number of persons with communicable tuberculosis who will not accept institutional care and represent a major public health hazard.In July, 1953, the New York City Department of Health started a program for the antibacterial treatment of unhospitalized patients with tuberculosis. This policy implied that both the clinic and the laboratory consider each unhospitalized patient as a candidate for treatment. The laboratory can therefore no longer merely report to the clinician the presence or absence of acid-fast

Changes in Isoniazid Resistance of Tubercle Bacilli after Cessation of Treatment: Report by the Laboratory Subcommittee of the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Trials Committee, Medical Research Council M.R.C. ISONIAZID TRIAL: REPORT NO. 6

“…drugs persists after the termination of treatment." Widelock and Robins (1954) treated a group of patients with isoniazid alone for eight months. They found that the level of resistance of strains isolated during a follow-up period of three months remained the same.…”

The Clinical Significance of Positive Cultures and of Isoniazid-resistant Tubercle Bacilli during the Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis: Report to the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Trials Committee of the Medical Research Council

“…The reports of Joiner and others (1952), Coates and others (1953), Wallace, Stewart, Turnbull, and Crofton (1954), and Widelock and Robins (1954) suggest that the development of isoniazid resistance is similarly associated in some patients with a diminution in the suppressive effect of the drug on bacterial multiplication. It is thus of particular interest that the present data have not yielded evidence that the " fall and rise " phenomenon occurs frequently.…”